As fossil fuels are in a decline, new renewable solar energy has become an important part of energy used by humans, as solar energy technology has been rapidly developed in all countries in the world over the past decade. A solar panel refers to a device that converts solar energy directly into electrical energy using semiconductor materials that generate photovoltaic (PV) effect when exposed to sunlight. The solar panels are suitable for applications ranging from large power stations to small portable chargers. In recent years, the solar panels have had rapid development.
Work environment of the solar panels can only be outdoors, where a biggest problem affecting their work is not thunderstorms, but dust that has accumulated over the years. The dust or other adhesion attached to the solar panel may affect light transmittance of the panel and limit photoelectric efficiency, which will seriously affect efficiency of the panel directly obtaining the sunlight, reduce panel energy absorption and conversion efficiency, and reduce power generation efficiency.
Conventional solar panels in use can only rely on regular completion of manual cleaning work. Because of larger solar panels, large power stations use more panels at the same time, dust will be accumulated repeatedly, and repeated cleaning is required. Therefore, labor costs are high, cleaning efficiency is low, and cleaning effect is poor. In many occasions, in order to improve space utilization rate, solar panels are set in high places by mounting brackets, which brings more difficulty and risks for cleaning. In order to reduce cleaning costs, many users of the solar panels can only choose not to clean, and therefore can only be forced to bear the power loss caused by dust. Thus, a new automatic cleaning device is needed for automatic cleaning the solar panels.
Conventional cleaning robots can only be applied to level surfaces instead of being applied to sloping planes of the solar panels. Applying the conventional cleaning robots directly to the solar panels will result in the following issues.
(1) The cleaning robot has insufficient mobility and cannot move freely. The cleaning effect is poor. Since the tilt angle of the solar panel is generally from 10 to 40 degrees, the conventional cleaning robot cannot freely move on the sloping plane and will soon run out of power.
(2) The cleaning robot may slide and fall down from the solar panel. Because the solar panel is relatively smooth, the weight of the conventional cleaning robot and friction coefficient of the wheel are relatively low, the friction force is relatively low, and the moving robot moves with difficulty and slips down easily.
(3) The cleaning robot cannot follow the prescribed route, move in a small coverage area, and may fall from an edge of the solar panel. The conventional cleaning robot is generally set to automatically turn and bypass obstacles encountered. Because the solar panel does not have any obstacles, the automatically moving cleaning robot can only moving on a single path, its coverage area during moving is small and the cleaning robot will inevitably fall from the edge of the solar panel. Even with a pre-planned path, existing cleaning robots, during moving, are susceptible to gravity and the panel attachments can also easily deviate from the path, making it difficult to ensure straight-line travel. Furthermore, the cleaning robot itself cannot detect and cannot move through the entire panel, which leaves a lot of room for cleaning.
(4) Recharging the cleaning robot is difficult. Since the solar panel is relatively high and is large in area, it is more difficult to remove the cleaning robot therefrom once the cleaning robot has been sent up. In the prior art, manually removing the cleaning robot from the site or manually removing the battery the cleaning robot and then charging it is necessary, which makes the cleaning robot unable to be sustained on-site operations for a long time. Moreover, because many of the solar panels are set high with the bracket, so charging operation is very troublesome and wasting a lot of manpower.
(5) Monitoring a working status of the cleaning robot is difficult. As the solar panel may be set high, a staff member on the ground cannot monitor the whole process. Even though the cleaning robot fails, stops to operate or deviates from the route, a staff member is unable to be aware of it in time.